BS lane/jungle, ganker, support buillds

Introduction

Hello all, this is my first guide ever so here it goes. Bloodseeker is essentially my favorite hero in all of DOTA and is one of the most offensive heroes in the game. He is not, i repeat, NOT an initiator in any sense of the word. He is a strong carry, with the possibility of many early/mid game ganks and late game damage dealer. Other things like support, disabler, tank-ability all depend on the item build you go as well as your team composition. Personally I like to use BS in 3 different ways that depend entirely on my team composition as well as the my relative trust in their abilities. This guide will go over the various ways I use BS and my reasoning for certain situations.

Skills

The first skill we can talk about is Blood Rage. This skill is useful in many different situations. It can be used to silence INT heroes for ganks, can be used to harass lane supports during early game, or can be used on yourself to increase your damage up to 120%. Using this skill depends entirely on the situation, i sometimes use it on myself to help myself jungle and run down those close to dead heroes. I also find that on heroes that have a cleave type technique such as Kunka or Sven or any carry with a battle fury, this skill owns team fights. This support side is not always the easiest to pull off in pub games and beware not to cast on yourself when low on hp you might just accidentally kill yourself.
Blood bath is really one of the most essential skills to a BS. A lot of players will level this skill early game to keep themselves alive and get lots of last hits. While this is smart for most Blood Seekers, Keep in mind what role you are planning on following, for the support/ganker roles you really only need 2 levels in this and utilize other skills for your role. For the laner/jungler you are going to want this and thirst way before bloodrage.
Thirst is one of those skills that almost all bloodseekers want. It gives you vision and true sight of all heroes below a certain health at 6000 range away from you. It then gives you a massive movement speed bonus that can help run heroes down as well as escape when being ganked yourself. This skill is especially useful against heroes who try to push to hard or try to jungle such as a split meepo or a low health lifestealer. Beware though as good teams will try to bait you out with a low health team member and get a free kill from you.
Rupture. It deserves its own pedestal this move is so good. It does DOT per amount of distance traveled by any unit. Can you think of any better skill for ganking than this besides maybe a double ult stick zues. As soon as I turn level 6 i will get this every time to go and grab at least 2 ganks, one from my lane and one from a jungle or the opposite lane. Be careful with this around mid especially early since towers are your undoing early game, and also dont just use this skill just because you have it. Be smart and patient. Wait for a vulnerability then pounce and watch the crying begin.

The Laner/Jungler

This is my most common BS build of choice, it is very easy to do i recommend it to all new to BS players. I choose this build when my team is relying on me to not only gank but carry as well. Starting with the normal BS start core, you can go to either lane with this build because you will be leaving it soon anyways. Make sure you lane with someone who can handle laning by themselves such as a ranged hero or a good lane pusher such as dark seer, or KOTL. Start out getting last hits until you can buy both brown boots and poor man's shield. Usually i achieve this by level 3 but if by level 4 you don't have both these items you should probably leave the lane anyways because the other side has a better team comp. Begin by fighting easy/middle jungle camps until level 6. At this point you should let your teammates know that your gonna start ganking and ping out your targets. Get 2-3 ganks and return to the forest. By about level 8 or 9 you should have a yasha and can take any camps needed. At this point it is player preference as to what you would like to do next. I personally like to hold both the easy lane and jungle by myself to continue farming and ganking when needed, however usually by now team fighting begins. During the team fight if your over fed you can pick off 2-3 heroes but only if you roll in after the initiation and main tank. Do not initiate with rupture as it will be wasted on a fully healed hero and can be instantly countered. Save it for when the first 2 heroes go down and then the opposing team starts backing. If you win the first team fight or you decided to jungle just follow this build and you should be a competitive DD carry for your team. Grab ganks whenever you can and destroy any heroes that you see with your thirst ability.

The Pure Ganker

For the pure ganker you are going to need to consider a few things. First off is how much you really trust the other players on your team to get fed and carry you for the rest of the game. The problem with this build is that it falls off later in the game when opposing players begin to grab more and more hp as well as more items. The next thing to consider is how well are you at grabbing runes and playing mid. This build is designed entirely to be a mid lane build where at level 6 you begin and don't stop moving from one side of the map to the other. Finally you need to consider the other team, if they have lots of stun or lots of durability then this build is useless.
Lets begin....

Claim mid-lane as soon as you can and watch for the first rune. Unless it is double damage just deny it and move on. At this point if you are facing a ranged nuking hero i suggest getting blood rage ASAP. This will not only keep them from casting spells but also harass them with DOT. Get last hits when you can and if you are getting extremely fed from creep then grab a quick force staff. I can usually grab this by level 5 if the other mid lane cant deny me or harass me. Otherwise just start building your dagon lvl 1. At 6 grab the closest rune and start on that lane, ping your target for your teammates and get them to initiate and force the hero to begin backing. This very instant cast rupture and hack away, if its a dual lane make sure you escape almost as quickly as you can unless your team is ready with stuns. At this point you are still to weak to tower dive too far so only do so if they are less than 15% health. If they have a jungler use this time to harass that unit as it will likely just be ending its first walk-through with low health. Rupture if you can and chase. Go back and pick up the next rune and go to the final lane, wait for rupture and ping your target. You should be the end of this first ganking spree have at least 1-3 kills. Begin working on mana boots and either a lvl 1 dagon or a force staff. Once you have both of these items it is time to own mid-lane. Go balls deep on the mid-lane hero with a dagon blast and then rupture. If you have enough mana left for a force move than do so to finish the kill and push your tower. From here if you have done all this then you should be set, just keep ganking the jungler and the lone lane pusher when you can, follow up team fights with rupture and dagon, and support your carry with blood-rage when needed.

If you haven't won by 30 minute mark and the other team is starting to not only survive but equalize team-fights, it is probably a good time to rethink your build if you haven't already, become as tanky as possible and initiate the hard carry with the dagon and force staff into your main group, then chase down the supports as your team begins winning. This actually works surprisingly well for me but you really gotta work that force staff. No game for you as mid-lane ganker should last longer than 45 minutes if you plan on winning. Otherwise hope to god your team is fed enough to win 4v5.

The much depreciated support BS

This build should really only be chosen if not only you have a great mid-lane hero, and don't have much support class on your team and everybody decided to go carry (pub games anybody?). This build is also very hard to win with as BS is not supposed to be a support class, but essentially this build has early game ganking built in and then blood raging your hardest carry teammate. I personally love going this build with an AM or a Sven. In fact a great team comp to use this with would be Sven, Disruptor, Vengeful Spirit, and Dark Seer.

Anyways follow your lane pusher or main carry into easy lane, do not fight for last hits with him, instead use this time to harass the opposing hero with the lowest HP. At level 4 you can jungle for extra cash but stay close so that at level 6 you can gank easy lane. Get at least 2 kills and build your support items starting with mana boots and either vlads or mek. Vlads will help you jungle before and after team-fights, and mek will help you in team-fights , remember to blood-rage your hard carry before each fight and chase enemies down with rupture and thirst.

If your team has won the first few team-fights grab a few observer wards and place them at the entrances to their base so that you can see where each player is going, if they have invis heroes like Riki or BH or have shadow blades, grab dusts. If you feel over-fed grab a pipe or eul's scepter. This is another one of those builds that relies heavenly on how much you trust your teammates and how fed they are getting, only grab hero kills if you are the only one able to chase them down. Luckily this build can last into the late game since support role with blood-rage, mek, and pipe never stops in team-fights.

Don't be greedy, follow your team around, keep them alive and help them chase enemies down.

This build draws a lot of hatred from ignorant pub gamers, but just stick it out and in the end they will love you for how much you kept your team alive and played the smart role for your team comp. Not to mention it is funny to see the other team QQ when they get critical cleaved by a Sven with ulti, blood-rage, and a vengeful damage aura.

Items

My item builds with BS is actually much more diverse than it lets on. BS is a very flexible hero for a multitude of reasons depending on the situation.

For my Carry BS, Poor Man's shield and early boots with a yasha is pretty standard for most agility based carries. It gives early damage and move speed, plus a slight ability to tank. I always debate myself between SnY and manta after this and it is entirely situational. I like manta for the better stats and illusions but it really should only be gotten if you are required to hard carry team-fights since your team is a bunch of fools. Otherwise i choose SnY because it has close to similar stats, gives you maim and is substantially cheaper. Make sure you grab treads after a yasha and then upgrade to SnY, treads should always be set on STR (for the boost in health) or switched to INT (for the boost in mana) when needed. Phase boots are nice for chasing and escaping to not only increase damage and move speed but also make it easier to run through creeps in either direction. I always grab a hyperstone next because of the flexibility it creates. If your team needs a hard carry you can turn this into an AC (after your AC build a blade mail to help your tank-ability), if they need high damage output you can turn it into a mjollnir. If you decide to go Mjollnir, i also recommend a radiance so as to maximize your creep wave killing potential. After which you can grab a deso if no1 else has since it is cheap and extremely useful in many situations. Situationally speaking if your team needs you to tank, BKB and HoT are your next items, if you are going high damage output go MKB and Daedalus. If you need to escape more often, grab a shadow blade and ethereal blade. I like getting orchid if their team has great escape mechanisms to help silence and increase damage output to that unit. If the game is so late that you need one last item to fill up your slots, an abyssal blade will own everyone with stun and high damage no matter which path you choose. But if the game is lasting this long and your fed enough to grab this than you should ask yourself why haven't you won yet :)

For my Ganking BS the starting build requires only a quelling blade because you need to save that other money for your first big ganking item such as force staff or dagon. Force staff combined with rupture does mondo damage and dagon is quick burst damage to scare the other player into running for a quick rupture. Ethereal blade is a very good item if you use it correctly and can actually help you gank more durable heroes. Casting ethereal blade first does damage and increases the magic damage to the unit for a few seconds during which you cast your dagon and then wait to rupture for them to start running. Force staff and then chase with the bonus agility and thirst you just acquired. Shadow blade and blink dagger should really only be gotten if you need the extra chase and/or escape for those tough ganks. For strong ranged heroes such as drow or huskar I like a halberd to disarm them and for the maim, then an orchid to silence them. Viel to increase magic damage and Shiva's guard for the escape mechanisms and also the ability to do magic damage and slow enemies.

The support BS has essentially only one real support skill, and that is blood-rage. Thirst will help your team find weakened heroes and sometimes invisible heroes. Thus his support comes from the amount of jungle farm and ganking farm he can acquire early game to grab those essential support-type items. If no1 has gotten a courier grab one in the beginning, or if they have grab the flying courier, A quelling blade so that when you do jungle you can still do it well, and the healing items as needed (personally I feel you don't need them with your blood bath ability however your also trying to save last hits for your lane partner). Grab boots of speed, RofBas, buckler, for speed and early auras. Then upgrade to mana boots, vlads, and mek in that order. Mana boots too keep mana up, vlads because it has auras (Life-steal not unique attack mod, damage, armor, and mana), and mek because it is the ultimate support Item. After this core the game will dictate your next items. If your team needs more life, then grab a pipe for the barrier, medallion of courage if their hard carry has tons of health, wards and dusts as needed, viel if your a team of nuking, urn to heal teammates, Rod of Atos if certain enemies escape too easily, Same goes for Scythe, scepter of divinity, and orchid (can also be used to disable key enemies as needed), force staff if your carry needs an easy escape.

Team Work

As stated above, how you affect your team fighting depends on the situation. Sometimes as a BS i can roam by myself and push lanes and raxes with ease since my team compesition and competence does not necessitate another carry stealing kills.

Most of the time however I am called upon to be the main damage dealer as well as sometimes the hard carry. As the main damage dealer I will tag team in with the hard carry, just after the main initiation. Cast Blood-rage on myself and hack away at whoever is closest, and after my silence wears off i will cast rupture on any hero who thinks they might be able to get away. I prefer to wait to begin team fighting until I am level 11 for lvl 2 rupture but often I am needed by level 9 or 10 to join up. It is up to you whether or not you want to join your team but know early/mid game team fights might need the extra damage if your hard carry is not fed enough.

As a Ganker I will sometimes join up only if the entire opposing team has gathered together, otherwise I will go grab ganks on the stragglers and underfed carries who try to get a couple creep waves. If the opposing team has gathered together i like to focus first on the hard carry with my heavy nukes and then chase the closest support or squishy hero to me with rupture and whatever I have left in my arsenal. Sometimes I will rupture one hero and chase another since most of the time a smart player will stand still when ruptured giving time for my team to chase and kill on their own. This way I will not steal all the kills from my hard carry and be able to gank more than just 2-3 people of a team.

As a support, after my initial ganking phase, i will jungle fully until my team is about to begin a team fight. During which my job is to Blood-rage the main damage dealer, and keep the hard carry as well as my disablers alive with whatever skills and Items I have. Early team fights will be owned by this build, guaranteed as long as your hard carry and main damage dealer are present. Continue this until late game when you should simply follow your hard carry around at all times to make sure he stays alive. If at any time your hard carry dies, you better hope your damage dealer can pick up the slack and kill at least half their team with blood-rage.

Creeping / Jungling

No matter what build you choose, jungling is always a very easy and fun task as a BS due to your Blood Bath ability. Until level 6 you should stay close to the easy/mid level camps and only going for a hard camp if it is the rainbow trolls. Afterwards all hard camps should be available for farming. In both the gank/carry builds you can take an ancient camp at any time and should take them as often as possible. For the support role, only ever go after an ancient camp if your carries are extremely fed and if you are beyond level 13, otherwise the only times you should go to these camps is to help your carries farm them and that is it.

Remember to not stay in the jungle forever though and keep an eye out for roamers and low life enemies. Hero kills are always more lucrative but deaths are extremely detrimental (especially since for some reason I am always the highest level in the game, my death time lasts forever).

As far as creeping goes, BS can creep as much as he needs to but is constantly a target for ganking himself. As he is a snowball hero, people often find it a job to consistently harass and prevent him from going hard. So this means creep only as far as you need to to push the lane back then either return to your team or continue creeping based on where the location of the opposing team is.

Summary

In conclusion I have shown you my builds and my reasoning for each type. Also keep in mind that this is my first guide and would be open to any and all comments as they roll in. Whether you like it or not please vote for it and leave a comment on the different aspects of my favorite Hero. If you would like me to go further in depth about my choices then leave a comment or drop me a private message on this account and I would be glad to discuss anything. I will also be glad to give credit where it is due if anyone offers me information that adequately changes my builds for the better.

You explain everything pretty well, but it is pretty hard to read without good presentation. Maybe in your next guide, improve the presentation, meaning adding color, bold text (highlights), and more pictures, maybe in the gameplay section.

Anyway, I like Sange and Yasha on Bloodseeker, but if you get Hyperstone, you must upgrade it! I can't stand seeing a Hyperstone there, lying and not being upgraded ;).

Awesome I will be glad to start adding in the colors and bolds but right now school is kicking my *** right now :)

As for the hyperstone I like it early for the added speed boost but I leave it up to the gameplay of my teammates to decide how I go forward. For some reason I find that my team needs more time to figure out what they are in fact trying to accomplish. Adding to that, i like the speed boost before the damage boost of Desolater just in case I get into a teamfight before Deso is ready since it costs so much more. My attack speed goes from about a little under 1 per second to a little above .6 per second and that is surprisingly more beneficial for teamfighting as well as ganking those high health stregnth heroes.

That being said I do agree with you that treads or phase boots come before SnY, and i will change that, the idea was to emphasize getting a yasha before upgrading boots for the damage/attk speed/move speed bonus it provides.